With the first “baby boomers” turning 65 years of age in 2009, there will be a dramatic increase in the number of elderly with physical limitations (at least partially disabled) but who will be living alone or with a family member in a residence that is multi-leveled such that occupants must negotiate stairs to access important living facilities such as a full bathroom with shower or bathtub, and/or a bedroom/sleeping quarters—which in many homes are located on a second floor level or a split level first floor, while the main living space (e.g., kitchen, living/dining room) is on a ground floor, i.e., the floor closest to ground level, and therefore the most accessible from outside the house. Additionally, in most of such houses laundry facilities are located in a basement or other such lower level that is down stairs from the ground level main living area.
Note: The ground floor is generally referred to as the “first floor” (first level) in the US. The two terms “ground” and “first”, as well as “floor” and “level” are treated as equivalent and interchangeable in the present disclosure, in accord with common usage in the US.
Typical age-related disabilities range from medium-term handicaps due to injuries (e.g., a bone broken in a fall) that take longer to heal than for younger people, to essentially permanent disabilities that degenerate from slow and painful walking and stair negotiation to use of a walker, to confinement in a wheelchair and/or a bed. The lack of accessibility to important living facilities increases dependence on others, including family or paid assistance, and increases safety risks such as falls.
Today's elderly, particularly those in the baby boomer generation, are typically used to living independent, self-sufficient and active lives while residing in private residences, and thus strongly desire to continue a similar lifestyle as long as possible, rather than giving up their accustomed living spaces to move into “retirement” facilities for some form of assisted living. The problem is compounded by a culture wherein elderly persons can no longer expect to be able to live with, and be cared for, by younger family members. Typical residential housing is constructed for smaller and younger families. Those elderly who do try to live with extended family are likely to be moving into a relatively small residence that is not equipped to accommodate a person of limited abilities, and/or doesn't have a spare bedroom for them regardless of ability.
Without access to ground floor living facilities, including at least a toilet (lavatory), and preferably also such facilities as a full bathroom with sink and walk-in shower, a laundry (washer and dryer), and/or a private bedroom—all of which can be negotiated with convenience by a disabled resident—it will be difficult to live independently without moving to another more suitably constructed place of residence. This often holds true even for limited ability elderly wishing to stay at home by using part time home health care services.
Thus, there is a substantial, and increasing, need for house modifications suitable for addressing the living facility needs of elderly residents. A house with at least a main floor lavatory can be adapted or even slightly re-modeled for use by a person unable to take stairs, for relatively low cost. However, the space parameters required for adapting a typical residence for wheelchair access and indoor use can turn simple interior remodeling into an overly expensive major reconstruction project, and if the needed reconstruction is structurally impractical or unviable, then an addition to the house may be needed.
Until very recently few, if any, residences were designed and constructed with the needs of disabled or handicapped residents in mind. Thus we have a preponderance of multi-level and split level homes, plus door types, door frame widths, and open spaces in rooms, for example, that do not accommodate wheelchair use.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) enacted by the US Federal Government in 1990 provides detailed specifications that are required to make a building and its functional elements “ADA Compliant”. Although originally directed toward public-use buildings, the specifications have proved to be very practical and suitable for enabling a disabled person, particularly one who is wheelchair-bound, to move independently and relatively freely in any ADA compliant structure, and to simplify use of facilities therein. For example, specifications enabling wheelchair movement include: 36″ (inch) minimum lateral clearance in all but a short portion of passageways and hallways, and a five foot (5′) minimum turning radius of clear floor space to allow turning around. Short portions of a passageway, e.g., a doorway, may have a reduced width of 32″. For example, specifications enabling simplified facility use include: elevations for toilet seats and bathroom sinks, placement and design of grab bars and faucet handles, design of a “step-in” bathtub or shower, and so on.
Typical additions to a house are custom built and permanent in nature, involving substantial modifications to at least one exterior wall, and often to a roof as well. Such house additions are expensive in general, and can be cost prohibitive given that the addition is only needed for a relatively short period of time relative to the usable lifetime of the house—over which time ownership will change a number of times. Because only a small fraction of potential home buyers will want an addition such as those contemplated in the present disclosure, the resale value of the house is generally reduced by the addition even though it added substantially to the basis cost of the house.
The prior art discloses some concepts for lowering the cost of home modification to accommodate the special needs of disabled, handicapped, or partially-abled (limited ability) residents.
For example, inventors have disclosed ways to convert a portion of an existing interior room of a residence into a bathroom to accommodate handicapped individuals. This provides a ground floor bathroom, which avoids negotiating steps, but is severely limited to use in houses that have enough disposable living space on the first floor to accommodate an intra-room, modular bathroom.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,858 describes a walk-in ablution or toilet compartment formed from a few standardized construction elements which are light and can be transported into living rooms independently of the width of door openings, and can there be assembled together, and which can be provided with several desirable living facilities, e.g. for washing, for bathing, and for use of a toilet, while for each of the individual functions a separate space can if desired be provided within the compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,402 describes a modular handicap-accessible bath facility that is constructed within an existing interior space of a home or building.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,976 provides a prefabricated and pre-plumbed modular invalid bathroom unit which has wheelchair access for installation in a first floor room for the invalid. The unit may be assembled in a first floor room and disassembled and removed when no longer needed.
Modular prefabricated (factory built) rooms are well known, and can reduce cost of adding a room outside of an existing structure, or more commonly, for quickly building a new structure such as a dormitory or motel where a plurality of identical rooms are needed.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,907 (King, Nov. 19, 1963) discloses a fully unitized, prefabricated bathroom structure which may be shipped as a completed unit for on-site integration within the interior of a new building structure. Pre-installation of utilities (water, sewer, electric) enable simplified connection with main utility lines while requiring only a minimum of installation time and effort.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,802 (Wokas, Dec. 6, 1988) discloses a transportable prebuilt room-forming module for external attachment to the exterior of a building. The disclosure focuses on details of construction considered suitable for transport while reducing cost through use of standard lumber sizes, for example squeezing the floor plan into a 4 by 8 foot area to fit a single sheet of plywood. Rigid “sandwich” or “reinforced” floor and roof members interconnect the walls of the room to provide strength. However, the walls and roof member are constructed using 2×4 studs and joists, with the front wall being only 2″ thick. The module arrives at the point of installation with a plywood exterior. Final external construction is completed on site after it is placed on a permanent foundation. The front wall has a doorway for aligning with a doorframe installed in the house's exterior wall. The front wall is permanently attached along its entire width and height to the exterior house wall. A plumbing tree of sewage lines is preinstalled with a common outlet conduit projecting through a hole in the front of the floor member for connection to the house sewer system.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,644,203 (Donahue, Jul. 7, 1953) discloses a prefabricated bathroom structure which can be connected to a building, such as a rural residence, not previously provided with a bathroom, easily, quickly and without the requirement of special skill or the incurring of great expense. A further object is to provide a novel structure for attaching a prefabricated building structure to an old building structure and for sealing the horizontal and vertical joints between said structures effectively against wind and weather (using trim strips, flashing, caulking and a flat bottom periphery for sealingly resting on a sill plate provided on a foundation wall). A further object is to provide a novel, prefabricated, single room structure adapted to be connected or attached to another building, and characterized by a strong, light weight, insulated construction, which can be transported or shipped conveniently as a unit (using light weight construction such as 2×4 stud walls), and which is further characterized by the incorporation therein of plumbing and electric service lines and plumbing and electric fixtures, so arranged as to be protected against damage during shipment and installation of the structure, insulated against freezing in cold weather, and readily connected with plumbing and electrical lines serving the building to which the structure is attached. To this end, the preinstalled plumbing and electric lines are connected to common connection points provided in a box-like structure that encloses an opening all the way through the floor structure to access the inside of the foundation crawl space from inside the bathroom. The crawl space is surrounded by a permanent foundation wall like that of the residence, through which a hole is cut to allow passage of plumbing and electric lines from the residence for connection to the bathroom structure's connection points. The front wall has a doorway for aligning with a doorframe installed in the residence's exterior wall. The front wall is permanently attached and sealed along its entire width and height to the exterior house wall.
Thus there is an unmet need for a cost effective temporary addition to a residence (house) that provides missing living space and facilities on a ground floor level. Preferably the addition is ADA compliant.
A particularly suitable addition will provide an elderly and/or physically disabled person with sufficient space and facilities including a full bathroom or bedroom, optionally with laundry facilities, for ground floor living and sleeping. An ADA compliant temporary house addition will provide the necessary wheelchair space that can be comfortably negotiated alone or with the assistance of a caregiver.